As a business owner, you want to save as much time, money, and energy as humanly possible by streamlining your entire business from top to bottom. The more resources you can conserve, the more you can invest in your marketing efforts.
If you’re smart, you’re already streamlining your small needs like outsourcing minor tasks, hiring short-term contracted staff members, and using professionally programmed and pre-made documents to make sure your paperwork is up to par. These aspects of running a business are probably old hat to you.
While you’re streamlining the everyday aspects of running your business, hopefully, you’re not forgetting to streamline your data analytics as well. If you’re collecting any kind of data, it’s likely coming from multiple sources. And since you can’t afford to dilute the efficiency of your business, here are three tips to tighten it up.
1. Make sure your devices and programs are collecting data
This may sound obvious to some, but if you’re new to data analysis, you may not be aware that the collection of data from the devices and programs you use within your network is entirely determined by settings within your control. Some devices automatically log data no matter what; however, many devices have settings that can be changed.
If you’re new to the company and haven’t had to analyze machine data yet, don’t wait until the need arises to find out if data is being logged in the first place. Otherwise, when it comes to analyzing your data, you won’t have anything to analyze. Make sure you consult your software configuration guides to optimize your logs across your network.
2. Know the problem before analyzing it
It’s important to remember that there are many different ways to analyze your data, and each analysis will generate different information. For this reason, it’s important to know ahead of time what problem you’re trying to solve so that you can select the right type of data analysis.
This is especially important when it comes to web servers. Server logs can provide a wealth of information on many aspects of its operation. For example, system performance happens to be one of the most important functions that is analyzed often and in great detail.
For example, Logentries.com analyzed the most common performance behaviors their community looked for in their logs and came up with a list of 5 well-analyzed areas that affect server performance. The data obtained by searching logs for these 5 items was only found because the person searching knew the problem was slow performance. So, they knew what data to look for and what reports to run.
Overall, having lots of data is important, but you really need to know what you’re looking for in order to make it work for you.
3. Use automated software for analysis
Recently, a startup called Sumo Logic came onto the scene and is now providing businesses with a fast and easy way to analyze data. Unlike other companies in the industry, Sumo Logic integrates effortlessly with the cloud like Google and Amazon.
There’s no reason to have your entire IT team scouring logs to find the source of a problem when applications like Sumo Logic can pinpoint issues automatically, and much faster than the IT team.
Practice analyzing your logs
Data analysis can seem overwhelming at first, but when you automate the process, it’s not so bad. If you’re still learning your way around big data, one of the best things you can do is spend some time analyzing your logs, even when you aren’t looking for a problem. It will help you get used to the process, so when you really do have an issue, you’ll know what to do.
